The Analysis of Knowledge

Knowledge and Belief

In this course, Dr Barney Walker (University of Warwick) considers three aspects of knowledge and belief. In the first three modules, we explore the idea of knowledge as justified true belief, focusing in particular on the concept of analysing knowledge and the objections of Edmund Gettier to the theory of justified true belief. After that, in the fourth module, we think about the value of knowledge, looking in particular at the issues raised in Plato’s Meno. And in the fifth module, we turn to the question whether we can believe something at will – a puzzle that has occupied philosophers including René Descartes, David Hume, and Bernard Williams.

The Analysis of Knowledge

In this module, we introduce the idea of analysing a concept (such as knowledge), focusing in particular on what analysis is, the usefulness of sentence schemas (or schemata), and the distinction between necessary and sufficient conditions.